Into Math Launches With a Focus on Differentiated Learning

At Hilltop Elementary, Mary Bruce’s third-grade students gather on the carpet for a multiplication warm-up. Today’s challenge is to calculate the total number of blades on seven wind turbines, each with three blades. One student mentions seeing turbines near her father’s workplace, while another explains, “The wind spins it, and then it gives you energy.”

Mrs. Bruce encourages students to share different strategies for finding the answer. “We could draw an array,” one suggests. Another proposes skip-counting by threes. Students reference anchor charts on the wall illustrating various strategies, including bar models and doubling smaller multiplication facts (a technique known as Power Pairs).

Gone are the days of simply memorizing multiplication tables. Now, students are learning to think flexibly and approach problems from different angles. This is a key element of the district’s new Into Math program, launched this year at Hilltop and Bryden Elementary following a comprehensive curriculum review.

Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Into Math combines hands-on learning, colorful visuals, and multilingual resources to engage students’ varied learning styles and needs. The online Waggle platform offers adaptive support and extension problems. Partner and small-group activities within each lesson promote collaborative problem-solving.

After the warm up, Mrs. Bruce’s students break into small groups to practice multiplication problems. At one table, Yua Tsuda and Melody Wang team up to solve 6 x 6.

“What’s 6 x 5?” asks Yua.

Melody smiles and responds, “30!”

“OK. What’s 6 more than 30?” Yua asks. Melody easily answers, “36!”

Mrs. Bruce revoices their approach using mathematical vocabulary. “So you decomposed 36 into 30 and 6. Then you solved 6 x 5. What’s this strategy called?” she asks.

“The five strategy!” the girls say.

Collaborative exchanges such as these build students’ confidence as they support each other and explain their reasoning. Children develop critical thinking skills and learn to apply their knowledge in new and complex situations, both inside and outside the classroom.

Molly Fusaro, a first-grade teacher at Bryden, praises this approach. “There’s a focus on fostering a growth mindset, where students feel comfortable making mistakes because that’s how we learn and grow,” she says.

Literacy is integrated into math lessons as students read and analyze story problems, then write explanations of how they solved them in daily math journals. Mrs. Fusaro’s students, for example, recently wrote sentences explaining how they identified whether numbers are part of a fact family. After discussing the answer together, Mrs. Fusaro modeled writing a complete sentence on the board as students recorded their own responses.

Both Mrs. Fusaro and Mrs. Bruce acknowledge that implementing a new curriculum comes with a learning curve, yet they are already noticing a positive impact on student learning. “So far the program has been great,” says Mrs. Bruce. “I look forward to continued professional development and opportunities for vertical collaboration to help us learn about and utilize the many resources the program provides. It will take time to uncover everything.”

“Implementing a new curriculum is always a bit daunting, but I am enjoying utilizing this new program,” says Mrs. Fusaro. “I’ve already seen positive growth in my students. They’re becoming more comfortable and confident in sharing their thinking and problem-solving approaches.”